Devo is both a band and theory. After witnessing the shooting
of four protesters at Kent State, Devo members Mark Mothersbaugh and Gerald
Casale started to form an idea that society
was a mess and wasn't going to rebound. The theory is that society is not evolving
but rather de-evolving into a mess of greed and conformity. When taken to
its roots, it's extremely radical,
but still interesting - take into account the commercials you see on TV, and
exactly what they're appealing to (it's either sex, pride, or food), or various
happenings around the globe. Their ideas were mostly based on the book In
the Beginning Was the End by Oscar Maerth. Whether or not this theory
is true will probably reveal itself way after I'm dead, so it doesn't make much
of a difference to me, but Devo really took it seriously. The band is
another story - they started out as almost a joke band, who were used to being
thrown off the stage when they played live - not for playing bad music (although
the crowd probably didn't like them - Devo's not for everyone), but for
purposely annoying the audience by extending their songs until the crowd had to
take action. In fact, sometimes the club owners even paid the band to
leave.

Devo was NOT just the band who had a hit single in the
early 80's with "Whip It". Unfortunately too many people
automatically equate that song with the band, dismissing them as a gimmick
(which, for the most part, they were). And while there's no denying that Devo
has made it's share of bad music (although that's mostly confined to one
period), they're also responsible for some of the catchiest New Wave that the
late 70's/early 80's had to offer. Devo was nerd-rock at it's finest - not
the cute geek-rock that bands like the Barenaked Ladies and They Might Be Giants
do, but real nerd-rock from some real nerds. Maybe they just weren't
smooth with the ladies or just got fed up with all the double standards of
relationships, but they devoted a lot of time to making the subject of sex and marriage
as unappealing as they could, which I'm sure nerds everywhere enjoyed.
"Uncontrollable Urge", indeed - Devo were the sort of band that
believed that society would be better off if we were all robots, like Kraftwerk
(who they were incredibly influenced by).

Devo got their big break around 1976, when their short film The Complete
Truth About De-Evolution won at the Ann Arbor film festival - attracting the
likes of David Bowie and Iggy Pop. In fact, Iggy Pop even wanted to join
the band for a short while, although the actual members of Devo knew this would
destroy them. Eventually they got a contract with Warner Brothers, and
hooked up with Brian Eno to produce their first album.

These guys did have a lot of signatures to their sound - early on, it was their
guitar tone and use of synthesizers, but later it was (unfortunately) primarily
the synthesizer (and somewhat that repetitive disco rhythm that they did a
lot). While everyone in the band did vocals at some point, the main
vocalists were Mark and Gerald. Mark's slippery voice is certainly the
most distinctive - he's got range, but he usually can't even be bothered to stay
on-key, for better or worse. Gerald's voice is gets used as a secondary,
whose sarcastic delivery helped define much of Devo's sound. Here's the
whole band:

Bob
Casale - Guitar

Gerald
Casale - Bass, Vocals

Bob
Lewis - Philosophy

Bob
Mothersbaugh - Guitar

Mark
Mothersbaugh - Vocals, Keyboards

The earlier Devo releases are actually pretty darn good...when the band had a
vision and were able to back it up musically was when they were able to produce
their best albums. After 1981, they inadvertently proved their own theory
by slowly going down the tubes and de-evolving into a generic-sounding band
overloaded with digital synthesizers. Even the lyrics started to suffer -
the early catalog was filled with anti-women songs that showed a rampant sexism
in the boys work (although it certainly wasn't blind sexism), only to
later wind up singing more-or-less regular love songs later in their
career. So if you just stick to the early releases, you'll find that these
guys actually had something to them. Oddly enough, some of the band's best
work (Hardcore Devo, Recombo DNA, and some of the live albums) is
incredibly hard to find.

Hardcore
Devo, Vol. 1 (1974-1977, released 1990)

Best
Song: Uglatto

Devo formed in the small, unheard of town of Akron, Ohio (you probably
haven't heard of it) and attended the same schools my parents did. The
band has roots back to 1970, but they didn't start recording until around 1974
(four years before landing a record deal). Realizing that this was when some of the band's best
material was recorded, Mark
decided to release a couple of albums of 4-track basement and car wash demos in a very
limited run, making securing a copy of them all but impossible. Which is too
bad - this is the kind of album that every Devo fan needs but won't be able to
find. It's strange just how real this stuff is - Devo was always a robotic
synthesizer-based band that was based around not showing emotion (but they
didn't take this to its logical extreme, like their buddies Kraftwerk
did). But this not only has emotion, but also shows how good Devo was when
they weren't over-produced and overloaded with synthesizer. Oh, the
synthesizer's still here, but it's mostly found underneath the guitars, which
are of course fuzzed to all hell. It's that ugly, static-like guitar tone
that pretty much defines what Devo SHOULD sound like. And even though most
of this is straightforward new wave/punkish stuff, the band does pull lots of
punches - listen to the creepy swirling intro to "Mechanical Man", or
the weird atmospherics on "Golden Energy". But the surprising
thing is just how much of this is good - I was expecting the tracks that made
the first album to be the best, but there's also quite a few great
songs on here that never got remastered and released. "I'm a
Potato", "Uglatto", "Auto Modown", and so on...all of
it solid material, showing both the 'rock' edge of Devo as well
as the ever-present catchy elements that would follow them throughout their
career. Speaking of which, doesn't "Midget" pretty much predict
the whole disco beat thing that would follow them throughout a few albums later
on? And why didn't "Social Fools" get thrown on an album in
order to reach a wider audience? It could have been reworked pretty well,
and I think the message ("you disobey/and then you obey") is something
Devo didn't harp on enough (as well as the bullet point "be like your
ancestors or be different" that this song pretty much represents).

Even the songs that made the album are pretty good in these forms - save for
"Mongoloid" which really needed the production it ended up getting
(although you can't really say that much for the album as a whole - the sound
quality is good, and the raw sound is really the main pull of the album). "Jocko Homo"
always makes me smile because the video from The
Complete Truth About De-evolution used this version...if you're a fan of
Devo who hasn't seen the "Jocko Homo" video, you should pick up
the DVD just for that. And the cover of the Stones' classic
"Satisfaction", while obviously not as polished as the '78 studio
version, actually manages to have better riffage than the real version
(the Devo version, not the Stones).

Hardcore
Devo, Vol. 2 (1974-1977, released 1991)

Best
Song: A Plan For U

Not wanting to be that asshole who released a "Volume 1" of something
without having a "Volume 2" planned (which is a stupid trick that
asshole bands like the Backstreet Boys and Korn do in order to try to convince
fans that they're going to have just as many hits in the future), Mark decided
to release a second volume of Hardcore Devo. In fact, there was supposed
to be as many as four volumes of this, but I'm guessing that Mark killed that
idea by filling this CD nearly to the brim of old Devo material, making it about
25 minutes longer than the first volume. Other than that, this is pretty
much the same thing. It starts with
the creepy "Booji Boy's Funeral" - played during a scene they did when
they played live showing Booji Boy (if you don't know who this is, it's a
character that Mark used to play when he wore a babyfaced mask that was supposed
to represent what society was devolving into) getting killed by a factory press
(I've tried doing this and it's impossible). From there, there's a
whole bunch of Devo treasures to be found - lots of wackier songs like "A
Plan For U" (featuring one of the best disjointed rhythms I've heard),
"Fraulien", "37", and so on. All the sexist stuff is
on here too - "The Rope Song" and "Baby Talkin' Bitches" is
one thing, then there's "I Need a Chick", a Frank Zappa outtake if I
ever heard one. Musically, it's on par with the first volume, just with
more songs on it. However, the synthesizers take more of a role here,
leading songs like "U Got Me Bugged", "Chango", and the
closing "Let's Go". While it feels more like a compilation as
opposed to Hardcore 1 which feels like a lost Devo album, it's still
every bit as essential. Oh, it's also got the first version of one of
Devo's best unreleased songs - "Be Stiff" never found its way to an
album, but it's one of the best Devo songs there is (although there are a few
other ways to pick this one up). Only a couple of the songs from here
would come back in studio form - "Clockout" is a more-or-less
straightforward rocker that ended up on the second album, and the cover of
"Working in a Coalmine" would be thrown on as a bonus 45 for their
fourth. Also the lyrics to "All of Us" (which is, by the way, a
fantastic blues song, especially when it's just the guitar) would later be
reworked in "Going Under" - not terribly fascinating, but still a
piece of Devo history.

Devo
Live: The Mongoloid Years (1975-1977, released 1992)

Best
Song: The last one!

Yet another extremely hard to find but essential release, The
Mongoloid Years covers the band's live performances from 1975-1977.
Probably most notable for capturing the spirit of Devo that wasn't even covered
in the Hardcore Devo compilations - Devo was, at its core, just a bunch
of nerds, but they were tough - they didn't conform for anyone, and would
play until the audience made them stop. But that's not until the end of
this collection - the first nine songs, recorded in New York, make up the bulk
of the album, and are probably the best part of it - Devo was really polished at
this point, and the gig was so good that it led to their record deal.
While a few of the songs probably weren't finished at this point ("Smart
Patrol/Mr. DNA"), a few of them, like "Uncontrollable Urge",
"Mongoloid" and "Sloppy" are done like a standard punk band,
with Alan the drummer taking center stage and driving the songs forward.
The next few songs are live in Akron in 1976...the sound quality isn't quite as
good, but the performances are kind of similar - "Clockout" for one
seems to have all the energy of the first tracks, but Mark's microphone keeps
cutting out. The last song, "Blockhead", ends in God knows what,
with the club owner talking about drugs and such while the band apparently got
into a fight with the band The Dead Boys who they were opening for. Now
you'd think, "hey, this is Devo!", but wait until the last track -
apparently recorded during their first gig (although I do have a 1974 recording
featuring mostly Hardcore Vol. 2 recordings, so maybe it's not) when Devo
was hired as a joke to open for Sun Ra. The first two songs of this gig
kind of suck because of the sound quality and the fact that the band really
wasn't polished by this point, but stick around for a while and you'll hear an
insanely long version of "Jocko Homo" where the band chants the
"are we not men" part until the members of the audience either left or
ambushed the band on stage (!). Luckily, the performance is capped a
little bit - originally they were doing "Jocko Homo" for thirty
minutes until finally going into "I Need a Chick", but by this point
the audience members have unplugged most of the instruments. If you turn
the volume way up, you can even hear Mark and Gerald arguing with audience
members ("there are other bands waiting to go on!"). Needless to
say, Sun Ra played to a near-empty audience by the time they finally got on.

Q:
Are We Not Men? A: We Are Devo! (1978)

Best
Song: Gut Feeling

And finally, we get to the actual first album. Even if it's not your
favorite Devo album, every Devo fan would probably agree that it you want to get
into the band, this is pretty much where you have to start (or Greatest Hits,
if you're some sort of cheater who shouldn't be reading music review
pages). Many people attribute the album's success to the fact that it was
produced by none other than Brian Eno (making this one of the weirdest items in
the Eno catalog), but it probably just has more to do with how great the early
guitar-based Devo was. Half punk and half new wave, this remains one of
the most original, not to mention catchiest albums of the late 70's. It
kicks off with the perfect punk/new wave hybrid, the uncontrollable stomper
"Uncontrollable Urge", with an addictive as all hell chorus, not to
mention some of the tightest instrumental parts (and I don't mean solos, Devo
didn't do solos). I was tempted at first to call this the best song on the
album, but there are way too many contenders for that title - I'd probably give
it to "Gut Feeling", if anything. It just might be their most
exciting and epic song, thanks in part to a brilliant piano part in the
beginning as well as a huge mess of distorted guitars in the end (that proves
that at one point, these nerds could rock), until it goes into the punkish
"Slap Your Mammy" which closes it out. But you also have to
consider the signature Devo songs - "Jocko Homo" is THE Devo theme
song, any way you look at it. Amazing how they managed to polish it up
without destroying the feeling of the original (Hardcore) version.
There's also "Mongoloid", maybe Devo's catchiest song - the vocal hook
will almost never leave your head until you're singing along with 'em.

For the most part, everything on here is pretty solid. There's a pair of
great rockers over on Side 2 - the western style "Come Back Jonee" was
a minor hit for the band, and "Sloppy"
features some more tight jamming that leads into another catchy-as-hell song
(although the chorus gets annoying after a while). "Space Junk"
is another good rock song, with lots of...what is that, radio feedback?
Mark's sense of humor is certainly there, telling the tale of a woman who was
killed when something hit her from outer space. And of course, there's the cover of "Satisfaction" which Mick Jagger
stated was his favorite cover of the song (no arguments here - personally, I
think it's better than the original, if only because Mark's voice seems to fit
the mood way better).

Originally I gave this album a 'meager' four and a half talking heads, but I
think it's worth the full five, because there's not a single song on here I
don't like. I think it's one of the best albums of the 70's, and if you
like albums, you should get this one.

Duty
Now For the Future (1979)

Best
Song: Smart Patrol/Mr. DNA

How reviewers can fawn over Q: Are We Not Men? and then slam this
album through the hoop and to the ground is beyond me. Maybe it's due to the lack of guitars (or so it would
seem - apparently most of the guitars are processed to hell, making it seem like
an abundance of synthesizers), but it's not as if this is a complete 180 from
the debut, after all, most of these songs were written at the same time.
Even though there's no "Gut Feeling" or "Uncontrollable
Urge", there's still enough good material on here to make it worthwhile. It's certainly a little toned down
- there's a few punkish songs like "Clockout" and "Wiggly
World" (unfortunately not related to "It's a Wiggly World" by The
Wiggles), but most of the high energy has been transformed into simply a fast
tempo in songs like "Swelling Itching Brain" and "Strange
Pursuit", which shows off the synth-pop side that would flesh itself out on
later albums. Still, it doesn't matter as long as the rhythms are still
strong - this album is surprisingly solid. While the predecessor may have
had a handful of songs that were better than the rest, everything here's pretty
much the same quality (unless you're not a fan of the two short instrumentals on
Side 1, which I like). Well, save for a couple of songs - "Triumph of
the Will", which begins side 2, is pretty boring, and the epic "Smart
Patrol/Mr. DNA" has way too many good hooks to be lumped in with the
rest. Other than that, it's hard to complain - "Blockhead" may
be no "Mongoloid", but it still rests on a good vocal melody, and
songs like "The Day My Baby Gave Me a Surprise" give this album a
voice of its own (the "waaa-hoooo" chorus is something Devo usually
wouldn't do, but it really works here). There's another cover, this time
being "Secret Agent Man", which might not be as distinctive as the
"Satisfaction" cover, but is still enjoyable. Also, I have to
mention the fast-paced "Pink Pussycat", which I really didn't like at
first (his voice is so cuuuuute!), but after a few listens became one of my
favorites on the album. While it ends with "Red Eye" - sort of a
strange way to end the album, as it's no different than the rest of the songs on
here - the Infinite Zero re-releases throws in two bonus tracks. There's a
remake of the early "Soo Bawls" and the B-side "Penetration in
the Centerfold" which really doesn't deserve to be a B-side at all
(if it were on the album it would quiet those who complain about the lack of
guitars and punk attitude on the album). If you replaced "Triumph of
the Will" with the song and threw on the obscure surf-rock "It Takes a
Worried Man" (which Devo used to perform as the terrible 'people power'
band Dove, because apparently they missed the days of getting shit thrown at
them), you'd get an album that I'd easily give four stars to, but as it is it's
just a little like on premiere material. Regardless,
as long as the hooks are good, everything works, so if you enjoyed the first
album, this is the next place to go.

Freedom
of Choice (1980)

Best
Song: Snowball

Although one of their biggest messages was that of non-conformity, all the
members of Devo dressed the same. While Q: Are We Not Men? was
jumpsuits and Duty Now For the Future was lab coats with square
sunglasses, their most famous look came here with the upside-down flowerpots
(excuse me, the correct term is 'energy dome'). Of course, this was only
because Freedom of Choice was their breakthrough album, giving them tons
of exposure and forever cementing the image of Devo being a bunch of one-hit
wonders. I won't go as far as to say that "Whip It" is the worst
song here like the Disclaimer Music Review Archive does, because it's really one
of the best Devo songs, but you've all heard it before, so that's that.
This album is even more removed from guitars than Duty Now For the Future
was, making this into a somewhat energetic synth-pop album - but I'll still give
it a good rating because the hooks are still awesome, giving the album the
illusion that it really doesn't even need guitars. Of course, the lack of
hard edges does hurt the album in the long run, but with synth-pop masterpieces
like "Snowball" and "Gates of Steel", who needs 'em?
The title track give the band another anthem, emphasizing how if society is to
hold any value, people have to use their free will. The song itself is one
of the best on here, with the industrial backing drums and main synth line
interlocking perfectly (something that A Perfect Circle seriously fucked
up when they covered the song). Either way, this was Devo's new big idea -
after the general statement of purpose "Jocko Homo", this might be the
most lyrically important Devo song. The idea is actually really cool -
saying that as humans, we have the right to choose what we want, but secretly,
we want all our decisions made for us. The line "Freedom of choice/is
what you got/Freedom from choice/is what you want" is the big statement
here, although you could make a good case around "Gates of Steel" as
well.

Again, it's the quality of the average song on the album that makes it so
good. They're still as catchy as they ever were - the cool laser gun
noises on "It's Not Right" is one of those guilty pleasures that I
hate to admit I'm a fan of, and the fast pitched bass line of "Planet
Earth" makes the song way better than it has any right to be. Even
the more generic songs are good - "Mr. B's Ballroom" has another
strong synth line, and "Ton O' Luv" and "Don't You Know"
have enough tricks to be interesting (and the line "and crush that doubt,
hunh, with a ton o' luv" has a great vocal delivery). In fact, the
vocals on this album are about as good as they'd get - repeating most of the
lines in "Cold War" is such a dorky thing to do, but it's really
addicting to listen to. Even though most of the real Devo fans despise
this album for breaking the band into the mainstream which led to their eventual
decline, the document in itself is still pretty great one.

Dev-O
Live (1981, re-released 1999)

Best
Song: Hard to say, but the Freedom of Choice Theme/Whip It is cool...

The commercialization of Devo was something the band was very much against
(which might explain why they sarcastically filled the album cover of Duty
Now For the Future with tons of bar codes), but Warner Brothers loved
it. After seeing that this band they signed actually scored a big hit,
Warner moved in to cash in on the weird red-hat craze, releasing this 6-song EP
showing Devo play a bunch of Freedom of Choice songs live. Rhino
eventually re-released it with a whole bunch of bonus tracks from a different
live show (do they even count as bonus tracks if there's sixteen of them?),
making the first six tracks totally superfluous...and, for some reason, they're
all still on here, so if you don't like listening to the same songs twice, make
sure you start the disc at track seven.

The band starts by playing an instrumental "Freedom of Choice" which
leads into "Whip It" (which I'm guessing is how they started all their
1981 live shows, just to get the song out of the way). Obviously
everyone's going to cheer for "Whip It", but it must have been disappointing
to Mark and the gang to find out that most people didn't even recognize the song
until the whip cracks. This isn't the same version of Devo you'd find on The
Mongoloid Years - no, this version of the band is insanely polished and only
a little out of hand - but regardless, they're still pretty good. If
you're looking for a break from the studio albums, this probably isn't the best
choice - the songs from Freedom of Choice sound exactly like they did on Freedom
of Choice. They do six of the best songs off that album, as well as a
few from Duty Now For the Future and only three from Q: Are We Not
Men? which is a little disappointing - not even a "Jocko Homo",
unless that got clipped from the release. Which is entirely possible,
because the 16-song concert apparently isn't even a full one (wait, of course
not, it's only like 55 minutes long). In that case, you'd have to wonder
why they even bothered to leave the six-song EP on here - without it, it would
probably be a higher grade (especially if they put on more of the original
concert).

New
Traditionalists (1981)

Best
Song: Race of Doom

Here's some trivia for you: up until three months ago (11/04, by my
calendar), I'd never heard this album, even though I named a webcomic after
it. I had actually just seen it on the inside of the Greatest Hits
album and thought it was a cool title. I'm glad that the album is at least somewhat good, because the last
thing I'd want is to name a project I've been working on for two and a half
years after a shitty album (which is why I didn't name it Bat Out of Hell II).
Lucky for me, the album turned out to be pretty good. At least, in my eyes
it is. The critics liked Freedom of Choice quite a bit, so it's
only predictable that they'd pan the hell out of this one. Still, I stand
by the statement that New Traditionalists is the last real worthwhile
album they made, and not exactly where they started to lose it. Yet still, I'm split on it - listening to this and Freedom
of Choice back to back usually tells me that I liked the previous album
better, but looking at my iTunes 'most played' list shows that three of my four
favorite Devo songs are all from this album. Not that this is at all a
scientific way of determining album ratings (in that case, I would just name
"Tunak Tunak Tun" by Daler Mehndi as the best song of all time and be
done with it - and who would disagree with that?), but it does say one thing - this album's has some real addictive
songs on it. Of course, this all plays off the New Wave-synth
loaded-but-still-great element again,
as "Going Under" has to be one of the catchiest non-Gary Numan songs I've ever heard
from the early 80's (especially the line "I know a place where dreams get crushed/hopes are
smashed/but that ain't much"), this time thanks to the spacey synthesizer
tone. And, by the way, the synths are all over this album too, pretty much
to the point where there's almost no guitar at all (at least
"Snowball" had a few guitar notes buried underneath it). Of
course, Devo can still produce some great songs - especially the
grating tone on "Race of Doom", which, combined with it's ultra-catchy
"Is it on?" "Is it off?" "Reply!" chorus makes it
the best song on the album, and maybe even their best since "Gut
Feeling".

Anyways, the main problem with this album isn't even really on the album itself,
but rather foreshadowed by it - since "Whip It", Devo had really
fallen in love with the disco drumbeat and dance style of music. So you're
not going to find any interesting drum fills from here on out - in fact, Alan
had pretty much let the drum machines take over by now, so you can't even tell
that, at one point, the band had a good drummer in it. Thankfully there's
no real casualties this time around - "Pity You" is pretty much a
disco song in itself, but at least it's a good disco song, and the
aforementioned "Going Under" is solid with or without it.
The songwriting is still mostly good - as "Uncontrollable Urge" was a
perfect New Wave song back when Devo was New Wave, "Love Without
Anger" is a perfect piece of synth-pop. The opener "Through
Being Cool" was another statement from the band, although I can't imagine
they intended it to mean what everyone took it as, that Devo wasn't interested
in having any more huge hit singles (because it became obvious after a while
that they really wanted another one). The other big statement came in the
ultra-sarcastic "Beautiful World" (which is also the last good video
that Devo ever made, showing footage of national tragedies, starving African children,
and the KKK, among other things) which was also a minor hit for the band (and
can currently be heard in a Target commercial because Warner Brothers is 99%
fuck-ups who can't understand what a song is about, like HP who tried to
advertise a camera using the song "Picturebook" ) and the only place on the album where you can actually hear a little
bit of guitar (the first 15 seconds).

Obviously, there are some downfalls - mostly "The Super Thing", not
just because it comes after the three best songs on the album, but also because
it's waaaay too long (edited down to 2 1/2 minutes, this could be a pretty good
song). But the cover of "Working in a Coalmine" makes up for it
- although it's not really a part of the album (each copy of the LP came with it
as a bonus 45, but my copy is missing it...good thing that every CD version just
throws it on at the end). The only other questionable song is "Nuff
Said", but only because they really needed to play the main melody
with a freakin' guitar and not a synthesized one.

Oh,
No! It's Devo (1982)

Best
Song: Big Mess

More like, Oh, No!...er, simply Oh, No, because this is kind
of sort of you know, where Devo just lost it a little, making an album full of
generic Computer World-inspired Disco Duck dance tunes without a single
hit single worth its weight besides "Big Mess", which is as good as
everything they've done, provided you don't mind a lot of mindless synthesizer,
which is pretty much all you get on this album. While I don't like the
sound, and I don't like the Cars-style production (even though it was produced
by Roy Thomas Baker), there isn't one song in particular that I dislike.
It's just a not very notable, despite a good hook flying in your way here and
there.

It starts with "Time Out For Fun", which I guess is the big statement
here, because the lyrics are pretty bad this time around (my favorite is just
the opening "Hello, this is, De-vo"). Oh, the song "Speed
Racer", I guess has a funny one, the "I'm Speed Racer and I drive real
fast!" in this really unbelievably nerdy voice. The only lyrical
statement is in "I Desire", where the lyrics are taken from a poem
written from a would-be Presidential assassinator to Jodie Foster who was going
to kill the president to get her attention. Needless to say, the band
probably didn't appreciate the upcoming CIA investigation, but hey, even
"Louie Louie" got one of those, so what?

Anyways, I guess my real problem is that this sounds really dated, but not even
in that cute synth-pop way, not in that still-relevant Pete Townshend way, but
rather in that 'there's a better model for this' way that basically ruins the
somewhat-menacing tone on "Explosions", which is behind it's time the
way the song it tried to somewhat imitate, "It's More Fun to Compute"
probably won't.

Okay, the CD version has a few "Peek-a-Boo" mixes, a few "Here to
Go" mixes (a song which doesn't even appear until the next album), as well
as a couple of B-sides, of which the surf-organ based "Find Out" is
the better one, besting even some of the album material. If you've got the
above albums and need to know where to go next, this really can't be a bad
choice, but it's just a little bland, so watch out. Otherwise, it's pretty
musically solid, and even a lot of fun sometimes.

Shout!
(1984)

Best
Song: The 4th Dimension

Since Oh, No! It's DEVO sold a total of fifty-two copies worldwide,
Warner Brothers was reaaally pressing Devo to release another hit. But it
wouldn't work out the way they wanted, as Shout!
pretty much continues in the same downward spiral as Oh, No did, except
this time, it's nowhere near as consistent (the previous album at least had
enough distinct ideas to not be boring). Most of these songs sound exactly
the same - lame synthesizer part over really bland industrial drums (they use
the saaaame beat every time). Only half of the songs are actually
distinctive...in fact, two or three of them are actually pretty good, if you can
believe that. "The 4th Dimension" starts out shaky, but the
running synthesizer line harkens back to the quality of the Freedom of Choice
days. The borrowed "Day Tripper" riff at the end was a little disappointing (they
were pretty much clamoring for radio airplay at this point), but besides that
it's a pretty big highlight on a desperate album. "Here to Go" is the only
dance song on the album
that's actually danceable, although the "Go Mix" of the song is
better. That, plus the title track is listenable - the fake horns are a
neat touch (still, kind of wish they were real, but that would never happen), but it's pretty much the same fanfare as the rest of the
album. Devo was so desperate for ideas that they even tried doing
something they knew they couldn't pull off - a cover of "Are You Experienced?" ends
the album, and even though the little guitar section is pretty nice, it really
shows that not only could Devo not write a song anymore, they also couldn't
perform one. And to think, this was the single! Still, it's better than most of the garbage on here. I
mean, I thought the lyrics on Oh No, It's Devo were pretty bad, but they
were at least good-natured and funny. These are just stale - the title
track doesn't go beyond the song title, and even stuff that reiterates previous
themes, like "Puppet Boy", come off as just being stupid. There
is one good song buried near the end - "Please Please" has a great
bassline, almost suggesting that these guys still had some talent left in 'em!
And I love the way there's a mashed up vocal melody that wraps around it. The CD version contains a Shout! outtake (did they honestly think this
would help sales?) - "Growing Pains", featuring a dying animal (or
just one out of batteries, what IS that?), as well as an easy listening version of the title track
that's actually not as horrible as it should be (and whose idea was it to
whisper the line "Shout!" anyway)? Either way, really not worth
your time - if you get Oh No, It's Devo on CD for the good "Here to
Go" mix then "The 4th Dimension" is the only real reason for this
album to exist.

E-Z
Listening Disc (1987)

Best
Song: That's Good

By this point, Devo was pretty much an elaborate self-parody, as evidenced
by this collection of easy listening tunes by our favorite de-evolution
band! I can't give it a high rating because I almost never want to listen
to it, but I can't give it a low rating because by all means this was a concept
that should have failed. A lot of the time it does...when they try to
convert their songs to shmultzy elevator music ("Come Back Jonee",
"Beautiful World", "Space Junk"), it's an embarrassing
failure every time, but when they actually use some instruments it comes off
pretty well. "That's Good" was the first track from here that I
really liked (especially the first minute or so - these songs are awfully
repetitive), due to some swingin' bass and reggae guitar (that shows up on
"Shout!" as well). "The 4th Dimension" is also really
good because it's not really easy listening at all, but rather a surf-rock
version of it. While this is essentially just a bunch of MIDI files
(nowadays the kind of things they put on cell phones), when the hooks are still
catchy it's fun to listen to. But in all honesty, there's no reason this
needed to be a 70-minute release...just a regular-sized album of the best songs
on here might actually get a pretty decent rating. As it is, listening to
the whole thing at once is pretty much impossible, so I can't recommend it,
although you might reach for some of the better material on here every once in a
while.

Total
Devo (1988)

Best
Song: Well, there's only two songs on here I can tolerate, so both Disco Dancer
and Happy Guy

Apparently not able to take a hint after Warner Brothers dropped them, Devo
persisted by signing to Restless (which is a little ironic, don't you think) and releasing another album. Except this
time, Alan Myers left due to a lack of vision, and a lack of real drums for more
than half-a-decade, only to be replaced
by David Kendrick, who I think played for Sparks at one point...not that it
matters, like Shout!, the drumming on every song is the saaaame old thing
over and over. The album itself is almost famously bad, despite the fact
that there was a lot going for it. For one, it's actually got
really good production, and there are more guitars on the album than any Devo
release since Duty Now For the Future. But it doesn't even matter
at this point - they use the aspect of good production alone to try to carry the
album, hiding a lack of any substance. Two songs are made listenable -
"Disco Dancer" is actually a pretty catchy single (at least the
"I'm a disco boy" part is, because those "yugggh"s annoy the
fuck out of me), even if it has 'generic disco song' stamped all over it.
"Happy Guy" uses a nice revolving guitar part to hold it together, and
is the only instance where the synthesizers don't ruin the song. Besides
that, it's really just one failure after another - "Plain Truth"
strikes out twice by not only re-using a melody from Hardcore Vol. 2
(which was waaaay more interesting there, by the way), but also using horrible
female backing vocals (plus the melody gets half-reused in "I'd Cry If You
Died"). "Some Things Never Change" actually has a guitarsolo in it, but it's not anywhere near good (and you wondered why they
never tried this in the past). Everything else either drags on for too
long or is a gimmick (their cover of "Don't Be Cruel" is so bad it's
almost good) - like "Blow Up", which uses the same silly growling
vocals that worked for "one, two, Be Stiff" and nothingelse.
Oh, the album's lyrically terrible too. "Some Things Never
Change" has a good point to it, but it's so darned obvious - there's no
subtlety to the lyrics like their songs in the past did. They're writing
fully-fledged love songs now - nothing like "Snowball", to be
sure. "Baby Doll", "Sexi Luv"...what the fuck was this
band even about any more? Hell, the only statement I can get into here was
"disco is dead"...but somehow I preferred the half assed disco on Shout!
than to this tripe. And, if you get the CD version, you even get extended
versions of your favorite Total Devo songs! Nothing like listening
to a 6-minute "Agitated" to make you wish that
Devo had broken up in 1982 after all!

Now
It Can Be Told - DEVO At the Palace 12/9/88 (1988, released 1994)

Best
Song: Working in a Coalmine

Well, if you've got new material, you might as well tour it. Devo's
pretty much become a dinosaur band at this point - luckily most of this material
is from Q: Are We Not Men?, Freedom of Choice, or New
Traditionalists. They don't have the energy they used to have (which
may be because this new drummer sucks), but if you didn't like Dev-O Live
because the songs sounded too much like the studio versions, you might like this
one. You can tell it's going to be different right from the get-go, with
an acoustic version of "Jocko Homo" - it's not particularly great, but
it's certainly interesting. The same goes for a lot of the album - the few
Total Devo songs there are sound just like the studio version, but that's
it. And luckily, there's only three songs from that album, and they happen
to be the best three (although "Baby Doll" is still a pile of
shit). It's a little disappointing in places - they do the E-Z listening
versions of "Going Under" and "Jerkin' Back n' Forth" but
not "That's Good"? Plus, the stage banter is funny - Mark saying
"you may wonder why we're sitting down...just to show you that we still can
after ten years in this business" makes the album worth it, with Gerald's
random "I am so fucking DE-VO!" comment during "Working in the
Coalmine". But still, the band's lost something since its early days - songs like "Gut Feeling" and "Uncontrollable Urge", which
used to be done fast and aggressive, are now slower and somewhat polished.
Even the little jamming parts on "Uncontrollable Urge" are
boring. But on the plus side, there are a couple of new songs here - like
"It Doesn't Matter To Me", which is actually a pretty good
acoustic-based number that wasn't on any of the albums, plus there's this
10-minute thing called "Somewhere With Devo" that they do as an
encore, which is just "Shout!" a "Disco Dancer" medley with
a few new parts thrown in. Obviously not the best live album, but any live
album can get a respectable rating if the band's somewhat talented and the set
isn't too predictable. Not exactly a must for any Devo fan, but you'll
want to pick this up eventually.

Oh yeah, as a footnote: I have a DVD of Devo performing live in 1996, and
they RULED. A hell of a lot more energy than there is here, thanks to a
brand new drummer, who may or may not have officially replaced Dave Kendrick
yet.

Smooth
Noodle Maps
(1990)

Best
Song: Post-Post Modern Man

This album has been pretty much ignored and slammed by critics everywhere, who
probably listened to the first half, thought, "this isn't Freedom of
Choice", gave it a C- and left it at that. I mean, the year was
1990 and the last thing we needed was another Devo album, but this one actually
isn't half bad. While it's true that this release has more in common with Total
Devo than Q: Are We Not Men?, it's also true that if you liked anything
about the last few releases, you'd probably like this one as well. The
good production values are back, but this time the guys are writing some actual
songs instead of half-assed attempts at covering a lack of inspiration.
Even the synthesizers on the album aren't horrible - "Stuck In a Loop"
opens the album with a synthesized trumpet line that may have been dated in
1990, but still ends up working well. Plus, the album has their best song
since "Big Mess" - the chanting "Post-Post Modern Man" actually
deserved radio airplay for having as good of dynamics as it does. And "Devo Has Feelings Too" is actually a decent
arena-rocker with a frantic atmosphere not really seen on any other Devo track. There are minor gems all over the place here...the cover of
the Grateful Dead's "Morning Dew", easily their best cover in a while,
and the catchy "Jimmy" actually harkens
back to their earlier days. Even "Pink Jazz Trancers" isn't
terribly annoying - the piano in it is
totally out of left field, and even though Devo probably didn't know what they
were doing, it all worked out okay.

Despite all this, it's still no Freedom Of Choice, meaning you aren't
going to want to listen to it very often,. For one,
they aren't trying to be old Devo anymore, taking on a more serious tone, even
if the lyrics still mostly suck. Just look at the titles..."When We
Do It", "A Change is Gonna Cum"...maybe when the band formed in
the early 70's this was fine, but this band is over 15 years old! There's
really no deep statements here, unless you think something like "Jimmy's in
a wheelchair and I don't care" has something to do with anything.

Oh, there's one other thing - some versions of the album come with three extra
mixes of the best song, "Post-Post Modern Man". The first one
sounds most like the original (in fact, this may be the original version
of the song), and the next two transform it into some sort of techno re-mix (the
third mix is just the second one without vocals). It's kind of hypnotizing
in that Kraftwerk way, until you realize that this is pretty much a complete
rip-off of Kraftwerk, complete with even a sample from "It's More Fun to
Compute".

Anyways, this was Devo's last album - at least they went out letting the people
know that they still had a little bit of talent left. There was one more
release, "The Adventures of the Smart Patrol", the soundtrack to a
failed CD-ROM game (apparently it was just re-recorded classics anyways).
Mark and Gerald also released an album called "P'Twaaang!" under the
band name "The Wipeouters", which was apparently their old junior high
band. I'd review it if I had any idea where to find it.

Greatest
Hits (1990)

This was the album that got me into Devo, mainly because I think each member
of my family had this at some point. I would recommend starting with Q:
Are We Not Men? if you're musically savvy, but this isn't a bad
choice. Pretty much everything is from the first five albums, save for the
Go Mix of "Here to Go" which opens it. Most of the song choices
are pretty obvious, and while it's disappointing to not see "Post-Post
Modern Man" on here, it would probably disrupt the flow quite a bit - the
songs actually play in the order that they would do them live, as I understand
it.

Greatest
Misses (1991)

Sort of strange that a one-hit wonder would find enough material to release
two best-of albums that were 16-songs long apiece. Greatest Hits I
can understand, but this really has no market, as almost all the songs were from
Q: Are We Not Men? and Duty Now For the Future. It does
contain one song that Greatest Hits overlooked, "Mongoloid"
(and "Speed Racer", for whatever reason), but besides that collectors
might want it for a few harder-to-find tracks. "Mechanical Man"
and "Be Stiff" are both on here, the former of which is particularly
hard to find. There's also the original mix of "Jocko
Homo". Supposedly you were supposed to buy both of these at once for
the story that covered both volumes.

Pioneers
Who Got Scalped (2000)

The Devo anthology, which is my mind a better way to understand what the band
was about than the Greatest Hits collection. Then again, it's much
longer, so that's not saying a whole lot. These two discs cover pretty
much Devo's entire career, from their early days when the film "The
Complete Truth of De-Evolution" was out (it starts with a clip from the
movie, actually) to their break-up in 1990. There-in really lies the
problem, however - the collection covers all phases of Devo's career pretty much
equally. There's plenty of unreleased tracks here - the would-be single
"It Takes a Worried Man" is the one that I like the best, but there's
plenty for even the Devo fan who has it all. Yet another take of
"Jocko Homo" and "Mongoloid" are near the beginning, but
each album has some unreleased material with it - be it a new mix of
"Snowball" or something really strange like "General Boy Visits Apocalypse
Now". This does get pretty tedious though - four unreleased cuts from
the Shout!/Total Devo era are four cuts too many, and their cover of
"Head Like a Hole" is out-and-out terrible. But some of the
material at the very end is nice - "Thanks to You" is actually a
pretty great song that should have been on Smooth Noodle Maps (then again,
I have no idea when this was written), and the beatnik "Communication
Break-up" always gets a chuckle-de-duckle out of me. There's also a studio
version of the previously live-only "The Words Get Stuck In My
Throat", sung by Booji Boy! It's catchy but the vocals are pretty
annoying.

Of course, like all anthologies, they never pick the best tracks - for one,
"Gut Feeling" isn't even on it when it reaaaally should be, and
how did "Triumph of the Will" get on and how did "Mr. B's
Ballroom" take the place of something like "Race of Doom" or
"Going Under"? And there's an "Are You Experienced?"
but no "4th Dimension"? Either way, there's enough good material
on here to satisfy any fan, so if you've only got a few Devo albums and want to
know more about the band, this is a good way to go.

Recombo
DNA (2000)

I don't really feel comfortable giving this a rating, because it's a compilation,
even if almost all the tracks are unreleased. Okay, so most of this is
just the demo versions of older songs, but every collector is going to want all
the non-album tracks here. Unfortunately, after Rhino Records went through
the trouble of digging out so many Devo rarities and remastering them, they
decided to only release 5,000 copies, so getting one is kind of a hassle.
But if you can, it's a really great collection - sort of like an expanded Hardcore
Devo that covers their whole career. Luckily, most of it is from when
they were still good. It starts with the title track, which would have
been one of the better tracks on Hardcore Devo, and goes from
there. There's two songs sung by Booji Boy, his signature song "The
Words Get Stuck In My Throat", and even a cover of Dylan's "Gotta
Serve Somebody" (!) which is actually really good. They're both live,
with the latter showing the band going off on this hilarious religious tangent
("Jerry found religion!"), making fun of those who thought that Devo
was some sort of satanic band (trust me, those types existed).

A lot of this focuses on the Freedom of Choice album - there's an
alternate version of the album with two unreleased tracks, both of which could
have been on the actual thing. The demos are usually interesting, even if
most of them just sound like lo-fi recordings of album tracks. Some of
them are just album tracks under different names with slightly different lyrics
("Luv & Such" is just "Mr. B's Ballroom" and
"Psychology of Desire" is an early version of "The Super
Thing"). What the demos really do is just show what the songs sound
like without production and finishing touches, and some of them turn out really
good - "Pink Pussycat" brings out the guitar that was hidden in the
studio version (and I actually like the vocals here better), and the rough mixes
of "Cold War" and "Snowball" work out really well.
Actually, my favorite from this period is the unreleased
"Bushwhacked"...not their best song from the whole 1979-1980 era, but
it's really addictive, even if at it's core it's just a carnival synth riff
looped over pounding drums for a few minutes.

Disc 2 is a little shakier, even with a rundown of some of the better New
Traditionalists songs, but remember this is where Devo was starting to lose
it. The early version of "The 4th Dimension" is pretty good, as
is the really wonky (but addictive) "Here To Go". But after that
it goes downhill, with a bunch of unreleased tracks from the later period of the
band, which shouldn't be exciting - except that some of this, "Love is
Stronger Than Dirt", "Faster and Faster", and especially
"Modern Life", is way better than the album material from that
period! Although "The Only One" should never have been released
ever, this isn't even a Devo song! At least, it really doesn't sound like
one. In the end there's the 18-minute epic
"Somewhere With Devo", which may not be the best 18 minutes they ever
put to tape, but it's still interesting - particularly since the beginning
mimics a Hardcore song, "Social Fools". But that part is
pretty horrible, thanks to everyone using their irritating voices again.

But hey, this is a damn fine collection, so if you're a pretty big Devo fan,
look for it!